Sar Pass trek

After finishing our MMath, a bunch of us (8 in total), decided to trek the Sar Pass (19-26 June 2022). We booked a package through Thrillophilia, for a 5 days, 4 nights vacation. The first step was flying from Kolkata to Delhi, so we bid farewell to Kolkata.

Upon reaching Delhi, we stayed at a guest house courtesy of my friend's dad's job. We had to collect some stuff we rented, like boots, trekking poles etc, from Sharepal (the service is not so nice, or we just had bad luck with regards to their delivery timings). After a stay of a few hours, we made it to Majnu-ka-tilla bus stop and boarded a bus to Kasol. The package we booked via Thrillophilia was a Delhi-Delhi 7 day 6 night one, I believe there's a Kasol-Kasol option as well.

The bus stopped somewhere in Haryana for dinner, then we were on our way. The next morning we reached Kasol and took in the beautiful sight of distant peaks. The Kasol base camp was right next to the Parvati river. In total there were some 35 people on this trip and 5 guides. The organisation that was responsible for this trek, our food and safety was Himtrek. I don't know the exact relationship between Himtrek and Thrillophilia, but these people were helpful and managed the trip well.

To summarize the trip briefly (because who really cares about the exact details? I want to show you some pictures and call it a day), the frst day we hiked from Kasol to Grahan village, it was a nice walk. It rained in between, which was a slight inconvenience because we had to wear our raincoats, but such is life.

We stayed at a homestay in Grahan village that night. It was cold, and in the distance there were some snow covered peaks. The next morning we started early and trekked to a nice little camp at Mung Thach. The guides and the local people (?) had set up tents for tourists like us. This was a nice little corner in a valley, with a cliff on one side and a forest on the other and it was green. I liked this place, it was beautiful.

After an overnight stay at Mung Thach, we trekked to Nagaru base camp the next day. We went on this trip during "off seasons" or something, so there wasn't much snow. The trek to Nagaru was a bit challenging, because we had to walk on narrow paths uphill, but it was really enjoyable. We reached Nagaru base camp, there were a couple of solid ice blocks which we (the 8 of us, it wasn't a "group-bonding" activity sponsered by the organisers) later made "snowmen" out of. There was sunshine till around 8pm or so, which was a new thing for me.

The next day, we started early and the first part was a steep climb and it took some effort. We started out a little late, so we didn't get to see the sunrise, but we still got some beautiful sights at the peak. A few of us played frisbee (I was afraid it would fly away and we wouldn't get it back). We stayed at the first peak for a bit, then we trekked all the way to the actual Sar Pass. This was the day we had to trek the most. Finally, we made it to Sar Pass. To be honest, it looked like any other part of the trek, but people call it the Sar Pass, so I guess that's that.

Stayed for a bit at the Sar Pass, which really is like a ridge and slopes down on both sides. Then we had to walk downhill (which I quite enjoyed). During snow season, people would have just slid down along the snow, but we had to walk. Finally, we reached Biskeri Thach. As we climbed downhill, the vegetation got more diverse in some sense, we also saw buffaloes and wild horses.

Final night's stay in tents at Biskeri Thach. That night I saw the milky way for the first time and it was amazing. There was still some light pollution from the nearby Barshaini village, but I could still make out the milky way. All my life I've lived in light polluted urban hells, so this was such a unique experience.

The next day we still had to walk, this time through a forest with lots and lots of pine trees. At one point I was alone for a couple of hours, because the people ahead were far ahead and the people behind were far behind. I wasn't worried about getting lost because there was a clear path to follow, a path carved out by the trekking business. I really enjoyed this quiet time, pausing here and there to take photos, bumping into fellow trekkers.

We reached Barshaini village, took a jeep to Kasol base camp, then an overnight bus journey back to Delhi. Went to the guest house, returned the rented items. Then, we (6 of us now, 2 left home) stayed at a Radisson Inn for a night, then took our flights home.

Now for the pictures. Here are some of the ones that I feel were the best. All photos were taken by me on my Samsung M12 phone. It might take some time to load all the pictures, even though they have been compressed.